Originally Posted by
nickler
On SIM day 1 of any airbus fbw type rating in the history trainees are told how to “consider” the side stick to avoid PIO. The abundance nowadays of politically correct makes it difficult to use the same comparison though.
During the first sessions I ask the trainees to open the hand if they are not making any input. As soon as they get adapted to normal law they forget about it and leave the hand on the side stick, where it should be.
I started telling them this when I realized that many times they were making random inputs on the side stick without being aware of it, most probably out of pure stress.
In the airplane this also helps them, when I see that they don't stop "stirring the coffee" I tell them to open the hand for one second or so, let the airplane stabilize, and then correct the trajectory, if needed.